Interface Device for Transporting and Repositioning Sheets

ABSTRACT

A first and a second article are disposed in lateral relation to one another in a first plane. Each article is grasped and rotated ninety degrees (90°) into a second plane and the articles follow a linear path of travel in parallel relation to one another. The articles are then brought into abutting relation to one another by a first and second set of elongate O rings disposed in converging relation to one another. After being brought together, the articles are again rotated ninety degrees (90°). They are then delivered to a conveyor with one of the articles disposed in overlying relation to the other and both of the articles disposed in the first plane. The conveyor carries the articles to a discharge station.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/595,715 filed Jul. 29, 2005.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates, generally, to paper-handling machines. More particularly, it relates to a machine that receives a pair of documents disposed in lateral relation to one another and discharges them with one document in overlying relation to the other.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Many printing machines can print two side-by-side documents in approximately the same time required to print a single document. Each document can be personalized, i.e., each of the two documents may be addressed to different individuals. However, after such documents have been printed, moving them to a discharge location with one document disposed on top of the other document is somewhat problematic. The documents enter the machine following a forward, longitudinal path of travel. The conventional technique, now in common use, is to move both documents to the left or to the right after they have been printed, i.e., changing their path of travel from longitudinal to transverse. After both documents have traveled sideways to remove them from the first forward path of travel, a first document is then carried forward again and the second document is moved further laterally until it aligns longitudinally behind the first document. Then both documents resume their forward, longitudinal travel. However, such travel is parallel to and transversely offset from the first forward path of travel.

This stopping and starting and changing of directions increases the mechanical complexity of the machine and slows it down as well. What is needed, then, is a fast, mechanically elegant machine that prints two personalized documents disposed in lateral relation to one another and delivers them to a discharge station where one of the articles is positioned atop the other and where the documents do not undergo changes in direction as they flow through the machine.

However, in view of the prior art taken as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill how the identified need could be fulfilled.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The long-standing but heretofore unfulfilled need for a machine that simultaneously prints two documents disposed in side-by-side relation to one another and that delivers the printed documents to a discharge station with one of the documents disposed atop the other is now met by a new, useful, and non-obvious invention.

Two documents or articles are sandwiched between an upper link and a lower link as they enter the machine in lateral relation to one another, carried by a conveyor belt or other suitable conveyor means. As they enter the machine, the two articles are in a horizontal plane.

A first pair of twisted belts engages a first article and rotates it ninety degrees (90°) into a vertical plane. Simultaneously, a second pair of twisted belts engages the second article and rotates it ninety degrees (90°) as well so that the first and second articles are disposed in spaced apart, parallel relation to one another.

The first article is then transported between a first pair of confronting elongate O-rings towards a pair of opposing rollers. At the same time, the second article is transported between a second pair of confronting elongate towards the same opposing rollers. The first and second articles remain in their respective vertical positions while engaged by said elongate, opposing O rings, but are disposed in abutting relation to one another after they pass through the nip of the opposing rollers.

The abutting articles are then engaged by a third pair of twisted belts that simultaneously rotate the articles ninety degrees (90°) so that they are again disposed in a horizontal plane. The first article overlies the second article, or vice versa, depending upon the direction of the twist provided by the twisted belts. The articles are then deposited atop conveyor means 44 and carried to a discharge station. Said articles may be discharged into an inserter bin, an accumulator, or the like.

A primary advantage of this invention is that the path of travel of the printed documents is not abruptly changed at any time so that a generally forward path of travel is obtained at all times.

A closely related advantage is that such arrangement allows the machine to run much faster than a prior art machine where the path of travel is from longitudinal to transverse and back to longitudinal.

These and other advantages will become apparent as this disclosure proceeds. The invention includes the features of construction, arrangement of parts, and combination of elements set forth herein, and the scope of the invention is set forth in the claims appended hereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the novel folder interface machine; and

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the plan view of FIG. 1, it will there be seen that an illustrative embodiment of the invention is denoted as a whole by the reference numeral 10. Articles 12 and 14 are personalized printed documents that have been folded symmetrically along a line transverse to the direction of travel of said articles. However, it is not critical that the documents be folded. Said direction of travel is hereby defined as being a longitudinal path of travel and is denoted by single-headed directional arrows 16, 18. Note that articles 12, 14 are disposed in lateral relation to one another in the plane of the paper as depicted in FIG. 1.

As best understood in connection with in the side elevational view of FIG. 2, articles 12 and 14 are sandwiched between upper link 20 and lower link 22 as they enter machine 10, carried by a conveyor belt, not depicted, or other suitable conveyor means. Articles 12, 14 are normal to the plane of the paper in FIG. 2. Upper nip 24 is positioned in leading relation to lower nip 26 to reduce the chances that a thick article will become jammed as it passes between said nips.

Returning to FIG. 1, a first pair of twisted belts, collectively denoted 28, engage article 12 and rotate it ninety degrees (90°) into a vertical plane, i.e., so that it is disposed normal to the plane of the paper. Simultaneously, a second pair of twisted belts, collectively denoted 30, engage article 14 and rotate it ninety degrees (90°) into a vertical plane, i.e., so that it is disposed normal to the plane of the paper. Articles 12 and 14 are now disposed in transversely spaced apart, parallel relation to one another

Article 12 is then transported between confronting elongate O-rings 32, 34 towards opposing rollers 36, 38 and, at the same time, article 14 is transported between confronting elongate O-rings 40, 42, towards said opposing rollers 36, 38. Articles 12 and 14 remain in the vertical, normal to the plane of the paper position while engaged by said elongate, opposing O rings, but are disposed in abutting relation to one another after they pass through the nip of rollers 36, 38.

Articles 12 and 14 are then engaged by a third pair of twisted belts, collectively denoted 42, that rotate articles 12, 14 ninety degrees (90°) so that they are again in the plane of the paper. Article 12 will now overlie article 14, or vice versa, depending upon the direction of the twist provided by the twisted belts. They may also be staggered (shiplapped) by any preselected distance. Articles 12 and 14 are then deposited atop conveyor means 44 and carried to a discharge station. Said articles may be discharged into an inserter bin, an accumulator, or the like.

Significantly, articles 12 and 14 maintain a substantially longitudinal path of travel through machine 10. When they are converged toward one another by the confronting elongate O rings, they are not required to stop or slow down and they maintain their forward path of travel. Thus, the repeated stopping and starting caused by the prior art method of changing from a forward path of travel to a sideways path of travel and back to a forward path of travel is eliminated. The machine thus has a simpler construction, is less expensive to build, and can run faster with fewer jams or other malfunctions as compared to the earlier machines of this type.

The positions of articles 12 and 14 are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 for exemplary purposes only, to show their positioning within various parts of the apparatus as described above.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, and those made apparent from the foregoing description, are efficiently attained and since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matters contained in the foregoing description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween. 

1. An apparatus for transporting and rearranging sheets from a side-by-side position to an overlapped position, the apparatus comprising: an input transport arranged to transport a pair of side-by-side horizontal sheets in a first direction; a first twisted transport positioned downstream of the input transport and arranged to receive a first sheet of the pair of side-by-side horizontal sheets, and to transport the first sheet substantially in the first direction while turning the first sheet into a substantially vertical position; a second twisted transport positioned downstream of the input transport, next to the first twisted transport, and arranged to receive a second sheet of the pair of side-by-side horizontal sheets, and to transport the second sheet substantially in the first direction while turning the second sheet into a substantially vertical position; a merging arrangement arranged to converge the substantially vertical first and second sheets from the first and second twisted transports into an overlapped position; and a third twisted transport arranged to receive the overlapped first and second vertical sheets and to turn them into a substantially horizontal position
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the twisted transports and the merging arrangement all operate to transport the sheets in substantially the first direction.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first direction includes an incline and the substantially vertical and horizontal positions are normalized to the incline.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an output transport downstream of the third twisted transport and arranged to transport the overlapped first and second horizontal sheets in substantially the first direction.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the output transport is controllable to operate at different speeds so as to control spacing of consecutive sets of first and second sheets on the output transport.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and second twisted transports are comprised of twisted belt transports.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the merging arrangement is comprised of downstream portions of the first and second twisted transports that are angled to converge towards each other.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the merging arrangement is comprised of: a first confronting O-ring transport positioned to receive the substantially vertical first sheet from the first twisted transport; a second confronting O-ring transport positioned to receive the substantially vertical second sheet from the second twisted transport; and wherein the first and second O-ring transports are angled towards each other so as to converge at a common output point, where the first and second sheets are overlapped with one another.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein any of the first, second, or third twisted transports are reconfigurable to be twisted 90 degrees in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first and second twisted transports are twisted in a rotational direction and the third twisted transport is also twisted in a same rotational direction so that the first and second sheets are turned over by the apparatus.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first and second twisted transports are twisted in a rotational direction and the third twisted transport is twisted in an opposite rotational direction so that the first and second sheets are not turned over by the apparatus.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the apparatus has a first mode of operation whereby the first and second sheets are processed simultaneously and are merged, and a second mode of operation whereby only the first or the second sheet is processed at a given time, and wherein said second mode does not include merging of first and second sheets, and the apparatus can be selectively set to either of the first or second modes.
 13. A method for transporting and rearranging sheets from a side-by-side position to an overlapped position, the method comprising: transporting a pair of side-by-side horizontal sheets in a first direction, the pair including a first sheet and a second sheet; transporting the first sheet substantially in the first direction while turning the first sheet into a substantially vertical position; independently of the first sheet, transporting the second sheet substantially in the first direction while turning the second sheet into the substantially vertical position; converging the substantially vertical first and second sheets into an overlapped position, while transporting the sheets at converging angles that are substantially in the first direction; and receiving the overlapped first and second substantially vertical sheets and turning them together into a substantially horizontal position while transporting them substantially in the first direction.
 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising transporting the overlapped first and second horizontal sheets in substantially the first direction.
 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the first direction includes an incline and the substantially vertical and horizontal positions are normalized to the incline.
 16. The method of claim 13 wherein the steps of turning the sheets are accomplished by use of twisted belt transports.
 17. The method of claim 13 wherein the steps of turning the sheets can be done in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the steps of independently turning the first and second sheets is carried out in a rotational direction and the step of turning the overlapped first and second sheets together is also carried out in a same rotational direction so that the first and second sheets are turned over by the method.
 19. The method of claim 17 wherein the steps of independently turning the first and second sheets is carried out in a rotational direction and the step of turning the overlapped first and second sheets together is carried out in an opposite rotational direction so that the first and second sheets are not turned over by the method. 